


A queer melody

by MildredMost



Category: The Terror (TV 2018)
Genre: Gentleness, M/M, Souls, Tears, Uniforms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-12
Updated: 2019-11-12
Packaged: 2021-01-29 12:02:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21409864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MildredMost/pseuds/MildredMost
Summary: Tozer is scared for his soul.
Relationships: Thomas Armitage/Sgt Solomon Tozer
Comments: 16
Kudos: 34
Collections: The Terror Rarepair Week 2019





	A queer melody

You could hear most anything through the canvas of the tents when the wind dropped, even with one bad ear. So Tommy Armitage, who never strayed far from Sergeant Tozer, heard everything he had to say to Mr Hickey that day. 

How he’d seen a human soul destroyed. 

Some things weren’t meant for the living to see. Sol had changed - Tommy had felt it - and now he knew why. 

He’d always admired Sergeant Tozer, and in the early days of the expedition had taken to hanging around the Marines just to look at him and listen to him speak. When Sergeant Tozer had started to notice him back he couldn’t quite believe his luck. 

“Always wanted to be a Marine,” Tommy had breathed against Sol’s mouth between kisses, that first time in the gun room. Sol hadn’t wanted Tommy on his knees like Tommy assumed he would. Like it always usually was. _What do you expect with a mouth like that_ a man had said to him once, gripping his hair and pushing his head down. 

But Sol had wanted to pleasure _him_. 

“Let’s see you then,” Sol had said, mouth against Tommy’s good ear. And he’d taken off his red uniform coat and buttoned Tommy into it and that had set Tommy’s pulse racing harder than the kisses and the hand pressed against his cock. Then Sol had dropped to his knees and taken Tommy into his mouth and _Christ_ he’d spilled in seconds. 

“A Marine needs more stamina than that,” Sol said, and Tommy had stared at him, panting, thinking Sol was mocking him. But he was smiling, and he’d got back to his feet to kiss Tommy some more, and Tommy thrust a hand down Sol’s smallclothes and finished him off quick and hard, thrilled by the noises he made. 

They’d often played Marines after that. “Prepare to repel boarders,” Sol would murmur, pressing Tommy into a dark corner. But Tommy never wanted anything more than to be boarded by Sol, because how could anyone resist those shoulders and the warm brown eyes and the dark gold curls most everywhere? Tommy felt silly about him, like in a song or a poem, or those books Peglar had read bits aloud of. 

Even when Mr Hickey had pulled Sol’s attention from him, it didn’t matter. He’d follow Sol to the ends of the earth. To the end of everything. 

And here, it seemed, they were.

Mr Hickey left the tent and began to climb the hill he spent so much time upon. Tommy felt a jag of anger as he watched him disappear. As long as Sol showed him respect then Tommy would, but not a moment longer. 

Tommy slipped into the tent. Sol sat with his head in his hands, as vulnerable as Tommy had ever seen him. Tommy crouched down beside him, putting his hands on Sol’s knees. 

“I heard what you said,” Tommy said. 

Sol looked up, his face streaked with tears. He looked angry for a moment, the line that dipped between his eyes appearing. Then he shook his head. 

“Ah,Tommy,” he said in a tired voice. Tommy lifted a hand and began to wipe the tears away and Sol seemed too exhausted to stop him, only looking down at him with that half scared expression he always had now. 

“You got your summer freckles again,” Sol said, putting his own hand on Tommy’s cheek. 

“You should have learned to expect it by now,” Tommy said softly. Every year Sol teased him about the freckles that broke out over his face at the first glance of sun. 

“How our bodies keep going, and yet our souls…” Sol shook his head. 

Well their souls were poisoned of course, Tommy had known that with every mouthful of the meat Goodsir had brought them. But it had brought strength to their bodies, and if they could keep those going long enough they could do what they could to repair the rest. He’d do anything to live long enough to take it all back. 

“Maybe all this…” Tommy didn’t know how to articulate it. “All that we’ve had to do was to keep our souls safe. Make them ugly enough that the beast won’t want them. So we can live and be better men.”

Sol laughed a little. “Tommy,” he said and kissed him, and Tommy closed his eyes and pretended they were back on the Terror where this - Sol - was all that had mattered.


End file.
